Social Media Management

When it comes to your local dental practice the best recipes for social media management success – and let’s not mince words: success on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter means increased quarterly gains and clearer and sunnier financial forecasts – call for a big dash of all-purpose seasoning. And that means a diversified approach.

But considering that you’re dedicated to building the reputation of your practice by wearing two hats already – doctor and small business owner – you’re not likely going to get the best possible results if go it alone. Sure, updating a Facebook page bi-monthly or a Twitter feed weekly with news, images, and video about new in-office dental technology or cosmetic procedures might seem like you’re taking advantage of the money-making opportunity of our time but in truth you’re only scratching the surface. There are so many more social media management tactics that could, if used effectively and efficiently, help turn your local dental practice into a regional operation. That’s why you should turn to a social media marketing manager.

What You’re Already Doing…

The vast majority of successful dental practices have been busy with content distribution since day one whether they know it or not. Content distribution is simply getting yourself out there to your existing and potential clients with published and circulated materials like fliers and pamphlets – and of course posts to your social media channels! But are these efforts being meaningfully synchronized?

How a Pro Does Social Media Management

A social media marketing manager will immediately strengthen the content distribution muscles of your local dental practice. Do you want to maximize hype for and get the most from the money you invested in those fliers that are being placed in mail slots throughout your local marketing area? Your social media marketing manager can send out Tweets and Facebook and Instagram notifications to all of your subscribers reminding them that discounts or promotions or important information lies within. Any positive and germane client feedback on these social media platforms can be used in a content redistribution effort the following year (more on that below).

If your local dentist office participates in or holds contests like cavity-free clubs for kids, Halloween candy buy-backs, or referral rewards a social media marketing manager will use these same channels to generate interest in relevant marketing strategies like photo contests and other user-submitted content wherever you choose host them. If your contest is in-office, social media is a great way to generate interest and get patients to honor their checkups on-time!

Conveying Your Chair-side Manner

You go beyond. You focus on your patients. You talk to them. You establish signals. You even have a great ice breaker or two, especially for nervous kids – and just maybe a book of schoolyard jokes you’ve practically memorized. You make every visit a comfortable, social, and memorable experience – but you don’t know how to convey your chair-side manner over social media to potential clients.

That’s where your social media marketing manager implements a strategy known as discussion engagement. This is best done in a blog or newsfeed-style writing. It allows you to choose the topic but to move casually between the persona of an industry expert and an active citizen in your local community. Social Media Management also allows you to engage, in a controlled manner, with your patients and community by posing questions to them.

Redistributing Content Solidifies Your Place in Your Local Community

It doesn’t have to be a slow week to re-post something old. While no one knows your patients like you do, a social media marketing manager knows who your patients are in their online personas. Your social media marketing manager knows which cavity-free club photo got the most likes last year, which one garnered the most comments, and which one belongs to the winner; they know what the people want to see to get in the spirit again this year. As time goes on, these photos will become a part of the local fabric – just like your dental office – and the people in them will become brand’s influences.

While traditional influence marketing is founded on the existing social media followers of A-list celebrities to advertise a brand, familiar faces from your local community can make a difference, too.

Live updates are another great tool for solidifying your place in your local community and conveying your chair-side manner. A photo or video of you alongside a new piece of dental technology that will improve the comfort level for your patients really shows you care. Re-posting that photo or video exactly one, three, or five years later and telling your followers, your patients, how many people it’s helped since it came to town shows you really care!